A
A Muzi
Guest
>>> SMS <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>> There has never been any indication that ridership has suffered as the
>>>> result of an MHL. This doesn't mean that MHLs are a good idea, just
>>>> that
>>>> fighting them with myths of reduced ridership is probably futile.
>> Ron Ruff <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> How about a 36% drop? For teenagers it was over 50%.
>>> http://www.roble.net/marquis/cached/agbu.une.edu.au/~drobinso/velo1/velo.html
>>> Do you have any reason to claim that ridership did not drop anywhere?
> clare at snyder dot ontario dot canada wrote:
>> Drop in ridership among teenagers may have COINCIDED with helmet laws
>> without being caused by them.
>> Kids do not ride bikes for fun anymore. They do not ride bikes to
>> school.
>> Heck, they don't play outside any more in many large cities - even
>> small cities and towns, because PLAYING is percieved as being unsafe.
>> Being OUTSIDE is percieved as being unsafe.
>> Kids get driven to school when they live less than 8 blocks from
>> school. They "play" video games. Their exercise is all organized
>> sports.
>>
>> At the elementary school a block from my home, where my now 25 and 26
>> year old daughters went to school, there used to be 3 or 4 bike racks
>> that would be FULL every spring and fall day. There are now twice as
>> many students - with a whole field full of portable classrooms, and
>> virtually no bicycles MHL was in effect when my kids went to school.
>>
>> Used to be a veritable troup of kids walking past the house to and
>> from school. Now the street is packed with mini-vans and SUVs before
>> and after school as concerned parents drop off and pick up their kids
>> as close to the school as the law allows.
>>
>> At the highschool it's the same. Not too many bicycles, compared to
>> years ago. More cars.
>> And cars ARE more deadly to teanagers than bicycles.
>> And those who DO ride bikes for fun and to school keep "junker bikes"
>> to ride to school because good ones will be stolen or trashed when
>> parked - by young thugs who have nothing better to do with their time.
>> Even the junkers get the wheels bent and other parts torn off or
>> trashed.
>> ANd we live in a GOOD area.
>> As a young guy I'd jump on my bike and with a bunch of friends ride
>> off across town, or out of town a few miles to go hiking or fishing
>> and think nothing of it. 50 mile trips (round trip)were fairly
>> commonplace. We had no local transit, and most families only had one
>> car so we walked or biked to school and back.
>> I biked to and from work on the farm 6 miles out of town every weekend
>> during the school year, and most weekends during the summer. Half the
>> way was on a main highway - but the traffic was not nearly what it is
>> today.
Tom Sherman wrote:
> Sometimes the older days really were better (in my case late 1970's to
> early 1980's).
> It is too bad that people have not shown more restraint in breeding. The
> world would be a much better place with only 1 to 2 billion people.
That's not what we have to work with. Any good ideas from here?
(growing tomatoes in the Sahara by mulching large numbers of humans may
not actually be a workable solution)
Back to topic, I delivered 25~35 bicycles on Christmas Eve and Christmas
morning for many years but not a single one in this century. Kids don't
ride now. My nieces attend a school district where bicycles are not
allowed at school and that is no longer unusual. Beyond, they aren't
allowed to a park 2 blocks away without an adult. The goal of 'safety'
is skewed to salacious and weird dangers which are in fact exceedingly
rare and less common that ever in history. Bicycles are a mere symptom
of larger social failings.
--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971
>>>> There has never been any indication that ridership has suffered as the
>>>> result of an MHL. This doesn't mean that MHLs are a good idea, just
>>>> that
>>>> fighting them with myths of reduced ridership is probably futile.
>> Ron Ruff <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> How about a 36% drop? For teenagers it was over 50%.
>>> http://www.roble.net/marquis/cached/agbu.une.edu.au/~drobinso/velo1/velo.html
>>> Do you have any reason to claim that ridership did not drop anywhere?
> clare at snyder dot ontario dot canada wrote:
>> Drop in ridership among teenagers may have COINCIDED with helmet laws
>> without being caused by them.
>> Kids do not ride bikes for fun anymore. They do not ride bikes to
>> school.
>> Heck, they don't play outside any more in many large cities - even
>> small cities and towns, because PLAYING is percieved as being unsafe.
>> Being OUTSIDE is percieved as being unsafe.
>> Kids get driven to school when they live less than 8 blocks from
>> school. They "play" video games. Their exercise is all organized
>> sports.
>>
>> At the elementary school a block from my home, where my now 25 and 26
>> year old daughters went to school, there used to be 3 or 4 bike racks
>> that would be FULL every spring and fall day. There are now twice as
>> many students - with a whole field full of portable classrooms, and
>> virtually no bicycles MHL was in effect when my kids went to school.
>>
>> Used to be a veritable troup of kids walking past the house to and
>> from school. Now the street is packed with mini-vans and SUVs before
>> and after school as concerned parents drop off and pick up their kids
>> as close to the school as the law allows.
>>
>> At the highschool it's the same. Not too many bicycles, compared to
>> years ago. More cars.
>> And cars ARE more deadly to teanagers than bicycles.
>> And those who DO ride bikes for fun and to school keep "junker bikes"
>> to ride to school because good ones will be stolen or trashed when
>> parked - by young thugs who have nothing better to do with their time.
>> Even the junkers get the wheels bent and other parts torn off or
>> trashed.
>> ANd we live in a GOOD area.
>> As a young guy I'd jump on my bike and with a bunch of friends ride
>> off across town, or out of town a few miles to go hiking or fishing
>> and think nothing of it. 50 mile trips (round trip)were fairly
>> commonplace. We had no local transit, and most families only had one
>> car so we walked or biked to school and back.
>> I biked to and from work on the farm 6 miles out of town every weekend
>> during the school year, and most weekends during the summer. Half the
>> way was on a main highway - but the traffic was not nearly what it is
>> today.
Tom Sherman wrote:
> Sometimes the older days really were better (in my case late 1970's to
> early 1980's).
> It is too bad that people have not shown more restraint in breeding. The
> world would be a much better place with only 1 to 2 billion people.
That's not what we have to work with. Any good ideas from here?
(growing tomatoes in the Sahara by mulching large numbers of humans may
not actually be a workable solution)
Back to topic, I delivered 25~35 bicycles on Christmas Eve and Christmas
morning for many years but not a single one in this century. Kids don't
ride now. My nieces attend a school district where bicycles are not
allowed at school and that is no longer unusual. Beyond, they aren't
allowed to a park 2 blocks away without an adult. The goal of 'safety'
is skewed to salacious and weird dangers which are in fact exceedingly
rare and less common that ever in history. Bicycles are a mere symptom
of larger social failings.
--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971
